Daniel French's third season of Caterham Racing. Competing in the 2019 Motul 270R Championship. This blog shows my full Caterham Journey from the build of the awesome R500 Duratec, the Academy Car in 2017, track day information, videos and race results.

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Build Day Twenty Seven - Front Cycle Wings and Indicators

With the collection due tomorrow I was in two minds about bonding the cycle wings myself, or taking the easy option and letting the factory do it next week in the PBC. I'm glad to say I decided to do it myself using bighead cable tyrap fasteners and their (bigheads own) FS adhesive.

I struggled a little to get comprehensive information about fitting the cycle wings using the bighead fasteners, so I took quite a lot of pictures, and have detailed what processes I went through so others may get some assistance if they are looking to do the same.

Firstly I fitted the IVA trim round the cycle wings, using little dots of super glue on the inside to hold the trim in place. Then I tie wrapped the bighead fasteners in place using two on the upper and lower cycle wing mounts. I used the 32mm square stainless steel cable tyrap which has the 16mm x 15mm inside width as these fitted pretty well around the cycle wing tubes.

Bighead Cable Tyraps fitted to cycle wings using cable ties.

Then the cycle wing got rested on the cycle wing mounts, and I measured from the top cycle wing stay to the front of the wing to a measurement of 80mm. I think it's ok if it's between 75mm and 85mm so I decided to go in the middle of that range.

80mm measurement from top wing stay tube to front of cycle wing.

Then I masked the wing and the cycle wing stay and marked the location to make it a little easier when it came to bonding them in place.

Cycle wing stay and wing masked and marked.

Once the wing location was marked I removed the wing and using a 60 grit sandpaper roughed up the inside surface of the wing and the upper surface of the fasteners so that the FS adhesive would get a key to adhere to. I also use a little bit of methylated spirits to wipe away any dust and residue on both surfaces.

Inside of carbon cycle wing keyed using 60 grit sand paper.

Then using the Bighead Big Bond FS adhesive, (used sparingly according to the instructions) apply to the top of the fasteners.

Bighead Big Bond FS adhesive with mixing and application tube.

Bighead big Bond FS Adhesive applied to fasteners.

I actually used a more bit adhesive around the edges of the fasteners after I took the picture above. Then I placed the cycle wings onto the fasteners. Once they were in place I double checked all the measurements and alignment with the front wheel and waited for the adhesive to cure. The adhesive took around 15 minutes to cure, but I left it for an hour to ensure it had properly hardened. A good tip would be to put some masking tape on the cycle wing stays so that any adhesive that leaks onto the tubes doesn't bond the whole lot together - which I found out when I was trying to remove the wing after the adhesive had hardened. It really is strong very once it's hardened.

Caterham Carbon Cycle Wings on Bighead Fasteners.

Next step was to remove the wings and mark out the holes for the indicator wiring and bolts to go through. They were pre-marked by Caterham, but I doubled checked their markings against how the indicators would line up using pictures on the internet, and it didn't seem they were marked out properly. So I marked my own drilling points and made drilled the holes, opening up the middle hole with a Dremel.

Three holes required to fit indicator to cycle wing.

Then I threaded the wires through and bolted the indicator into position.

Inside view of indicator bolted into position.

Rather than earthing the indicator to the cycle wing stay by rubbing off some of the powder coat and bolting it into place; it seemed to be a better solution (to me) to extend the earth through the wing stay and earthing on the inside of the chassis. So I extended the earth a couple of days ago and then today soldered the black and green cables together, heat shrinked them and pushed the wires into the cycle wing stay.

Then I located the fasteners onto the wing stay and tie wrapped them into place. My reservations about using the bighead method was lateral movement wing due to the cable tied fasteners, but once they were in place and cable tied using a wide cable tie, they really are fitted tightly.

I was initially happy with the aggressive angle of the indicator (see image below), but later decided a flatter angle looked better, so I just slightly opened up the mounting holes and adjusted the indicator accordingly.

I was initially happy with the aggressive angle of the indicator, but later decided a flatter angle looked better.

4 comments:

Many thanks, again, Daniel! I've been trying to work out how the bighead fixings should be done, and your pics are really helpful. Since the build, have your wings moved at all? Would you have done anything different? More ties? Grippy coating on wingstays? Cheers, Ned

No worries Ned - glad it's been of some help. I'm afraid I can't give any opinion as to how well they've stuck, as when the car came back from Caterham they had completely undone all of my hard work, and just stuck the wings onto the wing stays with a load of black silicone. Having said that the process I followed was well researched and it should've been perfect had Caterham not undone my work.

I will admit that the indictor on my final picture is the wrong way round too, as the fatter end of the indicator should be pointing to the rear of the car - not the front!

Yes, I wondered about the indicator...!I will follow your method; bigheads are ordered and on the way. I think I'll wrap some self-adhesive neoprene around the top of the stay (like bike handlebars) and then cable-tie to that.All the bestNed